The requirements of the Revised Schedule VI however, do not apply to companies as referred to in the proviso to Section 211 (1) and Section 211 (2) of the Act, i.e., any insurance or banking company, or any company engaged in the generation or supply of electricity or to any other class of company for which a form of Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss account has been specified in or under any other Act governing such class of company.

It may be clarified that for companies engaged in the generation and supply of electricity, however, neither the Electricity Act, 2003, nor the rules framed thereunder, prescribe any specific format for presentation of Financial Statements by an electricity company. Section 616(c) of the Companies Act states that the Companies Act will apply to electricity companies, to the extent it is not contrary to the requirements of the Electricity Act. Keeping this in view, Revised Schedule VI may be followed by such companies till the time any other format is prescribed by the relevant statute.

Early adoption of the Revised Schedule VI is not permitted since Schedule VI is a statutory format.

Corresponding Figures

The Revised Schedule VI requires that except in the case of the first Financial Statements laid before the company after incorporation, the corresponding amounts for the immediately preceding period are to be disclosed in the Financial Statements including the Notes to Accounts. Accordingly, corresponding information will have to be presented starting from the first year of application of the Revised Schedule VI. Thus for the Financial Statements prepared for the year 2011-12 (1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012), corresponding amounts need to be given for the financial year 2010-11.

“10. If an enterprise prepares and presents a complete set of Financial Statements in its interim financial report, the form and content of those statements should conform to the requirements as applicable to annual complete set of Financial Statements.

11. If an enterprise prepares and presents a set of condensed Financial Statements in its interim financial report, those condensed statements should include, at a minimum, each of the headings and sub-headings that were included in its most recent annual Financial Statements and the selected explanatory notes as required by this Statement. Additional line items or notes should be included if their omission would make the condensed interim Financial Statements misleading.”

Accordingly, if a company is presenting condensed interim Financial Statements, its format should conform to that used in the company’s most recent annual Financial Statements, i.e., the Old Schedule VI. However, if it presents a complete set of Financial Statements, it should use the Revised Schedule VI, i.e., the new format applicable to annual Financial Statements

Clauses 41(I)(ea) and 41(I)(eaa) to the Listing Agreement regarding presentation of Balance Sheet items in half-yearly and annual audited results, respectively states as under:

(ea) As a part of its audited or unaudited financial results for the half-year, the company shall also submit by way of a note, a statement of assets and liabilities as at the end of the half-year.

(eaa) However, when a company opts to submit un-audited financial results for the last quarter of the financial year, it shall, submit a statement of assets and liabilities as at the end of the financial year only along with the audited financial results for the entire financial year, as soon as they are approved by the Board.

(h) Disclosure of Balance Sheet items as per items (ea) shall be in the format specified in Annexure IX drawn from Schedule VI of the Companies Act, or its equivalent formats in other statutes, as applicable. “

Based on the above:

(a) For Half yearly results: Though the requirement in clause 41(V)(h) makes a reference to the Schedule VI for the presentation of Balance Sheet items, in case of half-yearly results of a company, it has prescribed a specific format for the purpose. Hence, till the time a new format is prescribed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under Clause 41, companies will have to continue to present their half-yearly Balance Sheets based on the format currently specified by the SEBI.

(b) For Annual audited yearly results: Clause 41(V) (h) does not refer to any format for the purposes of annual statement of assets and liabilities. Since companies have to prepare their annual Financial Statements in the Revised Schedule VI format, companies should use the same format of Revised Schedule VI for submission to stock exchanges as well.

The formats of the Balance Sheet and Statement of Profit and Loss prescribed under the SEBI (Issue of Capital & Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2009 (‘ICDR Regulations’) is inconsistent with the format of the Balance Sheet/ Statement of Profit and Loss in the Revised Schedule VI. However, the formats of Balance Sheet and Statement of Profit and Loss under ICDR Regulations are “illustrative formats”. Accordingly, to make the data comparable and meaningful for users, companies should use the Revised Schedule VI format to present the restated financial information for inclusion in the offer document. Consequently, among other things, this will involve classification of assets and liabilities into current and non-current for earlier years presented as well.

Attention is also invited to the General Circular no 62/2011 dated 5th September 2011 issued by the Ministry of Company Affairs which clarifies that ‘the presentation of Financial Statements for the limited purpose of IPO/FPO during the financial year 2011-12 may be made in the format of the pre-revised Schedule VI under the Companies Act, 1956. However, for period beyond 31st March 2012, they would prepare only in the new format as prescribed by the present Schedule VI of the Companies Act, 1956′

Points to be noted

The Revised Schedule VI clarifies that the requirements mentioned therein for disclosure on the face of the Financial Statements or in the notes are minimum requirements. Line items, sub-line items and sub-totals can be presented as an addition or substitution on the face of the Financial Statements when such presentation is relevant for understanding of the company’s financial position and /or performance.

Though not specifically required by the Revised Schedule VI, disclosures mandated by other Acts or legal requirements will have to be made in the Financial Statements. For example, The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 requires specified disclosures to be made in the annual Financial Statements of the buyer wherever such Financial Statements are required to be audited under any law. Accordingly, such disclosures will have to be made in the buyer company’s annual Financial Statements.

The above principle would apply to disclosures required by other legal requirements as well such as, disclosures required under Clause 32 to the Listing Agreement, etc. A further extension of the above principle also means that specific disclosures required by various pronouncements of regulatory bodies such as the ICAI announcement for disclosures on derivatives and unhedged foreign currency exposures, and other disclosure requirements prescribed by various ICAI Guidance Notes, such as Guidance Note on Employee Share-based Payments, etc. should continue to be made in the Financial Statements in addition to the disclosures specified by the Revised Schedule VI.